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Tina's Lucky - Friendship with Garden Birds

Submitted by Gitie on 20 September, 2015 - 14:27

By Tina

I enclose some photos of birds. The first one is a fledgling blackbird that I rescued on the road as a large crow was about to attack it. I treated him for shock and fed him with mealworms, earthworms and raisins f or 3 hours. Then I took him outside to the garden, where he dived into a flower bed. His father came to me for mealworms for his other fledgling, and he paused, hearing the rescued young, and he fed it and they were reunited.. Later my husband said that Luke, the parent blackbird, saw me take the fledgling into the house, so he must have trusted me, which was reinforced when his young one was returned to him.

The second photo was taken after the fledgling was fed and reunited with his father.

I thought, after reading about your stories and tips on friendships of wild birds, that I would tell you about mine. I live in England, in an average size suburban garden, dedicated to wildlife.
Over the last ten years, I have come to know very many garden birds, befriended them, especially during breeding season and harsh winter weather.

I too talk to the birds, and they have names. Occasionally they will respond to their names. The birds, sparrows, blackbirds, robins, blue and great tits, dunnocks, will come to my door
for mealworms. They understand when I tell them I have run out of mealworms and need to go back inside – as they wait patiently on the fence, four feet away from my door. They communicate with soft calls. Only the blackbirds communicate to me, and each bird seems to do this differently, sometimes with varying calls, and they use body language when asking for food, such as wing shaking (begging). Some will follow me around the garden.

My blue tit, Bluey, when coming for mealworms, found it hard to compete with the bigger birds, so would perch on a wooden milk box inches from my head. I placed mealworms on this box, but they would roll down onto the ground, where bigger birds would snatch them. So, one day, I held the worm in my finger and Bluey learnt to take the mealworm from my finger.

This year we have had robins, blue tits, great tits, dunnocks all nesting in the garden, as they feel safe. We have our share of predators, such as housecats and sparrowhawks, attracted to the large number of birds, and the different species seem to look out for each other and respond to other’s alarm calls.

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